Four of your brackets are taking all of the load. The outer brackets are only holding the rods in place. What you've created is a simple lever on the inner brackets and you're actually multiplying the forces there. You've got straight line force on wood fibers. Start sloshing water around added to your actually moving the tank and you're just asking for trouble. We're only trying to help you avoid a problem. Trust me, I've built a few things that sounded good, worked in theory, and actually worked great in practice. For a while. Fortunately those instances have been rare. Sort of. Last one was a lumber cart. Looked great though

I forgot about the multiplying forces! My dad had convinced me that the screws would hold, but I don't think he did the math I'm going to have to talk to him about it again... I have a couple of ideas for strengthening it, so I guess stay tuned!

Nice job on the stand, but the handles looks like a really bad idea.... set up a small 10 Gallon while you are in school, if you really must have one. It will be easier to move around. Wait until you are done school and then set up the tank somewhere a little more permanent. Are you on a ground floor at school? Is there an elevator or stairs involved in moving the tank? Or are the moves on the same floor in a dorm?

I forgot about the multiplying forces! My dad had convinced me that the screws would hold, but I don't think he did the math I'm going to have to talk to him about it again... I have a couple of ideas for strengthening it, so I guess stay tuned!

Save yourself aggravation. Use the short ones for giggles. When you move the tank later on just buy 2 dowels long enough to go through in one solid piece, or better yet as Hoppy said pipe, so the only thing the screws and pipe brackets are doing is keeping them in from sliding left off the long edge.

__________________

Dilution is the solution for the pollution.
Quote me as saying I was misquoted.
Once you get rid of integrity the rest is a piece of cake.
Here's to our wives and sweethearts - may they never meet.
If you agreed with me we'd both be right.

Maybe you could stick a couple lengths of (sturdy) pipe on there, bolt that on with the brackets, and use that as sleeves for the extendable handles (I'd still want to use iron pipe for those, from what I've seen, wooden dowels (even thick ones) don't do so great with anything but compressive forces)

That might isolate (or at least reduce) the bracket screws from the lever-effect.

Think about using a claw hammer to rip out nails, It's not a huge lever, but you can still apply a lot of force, enough to rip out screws.

I extended the handles and set them on pedestals after which I placed 400 lbs on the board aaaaannnd nothing happened. I let it sit awhile and still nothing happened so I got on it my self and started jumping and still nothing. What I'm going to do is add a fail safe similar to what you were saying, lochabar. Just having long poles threaded through when I need them is arguably the smartest solution but I want the most bad ass so that simply wont do. The sleeve option was the original idea but I couldn't figure a practical locking mechanism with the materials and time that I had. Now I'm reconsidering it because I have a lot more time. Unfortunately it might be a while before I can post updates because there isn't any money in the aquarium account right now.

..... My research tells me that even at 70 lbs the wood is more likely to break than the screw is to rip out. My room mate and I have already tested our weight on it but I'll post a pic to provide some solid evidence

Did you factor in leverage? Load strength is typically measured with gravity. When you hold the handle the edge of the tank base becomes a fulcrum point.
Good design idea to use two pipe straps. I think a full pc.of dowel rod would be stronger. Better still would be 1" black water pipe. In H.S. we couldn't afford both Barbell plates and the bars so we used Black water pipe.

It's hard to tell if you used pine or oak dowel. Oak will give mote strength. Also consider the direction of the dowel wood grain in relate ship to the fulcrum point. Think about how & why a baseball cracks when it hits a baseball.

Interesting concept, the older I get the them more moving tanks becomes a real concern. Looking forward to see how this develops.

Register Now

In order to be able to post messages on the The Planted Tank Forum forums, you must first register.
Please enter your desired user name, your email address and other required details in the form below.

User Name:

Password

Please enter a password for your user account. Note that passwords are case-sensitive.

Password:

Confirm Password:

Email Address

Please enter a valid email address for yourself.

Email Address:

Log-in

User Name

Remember Me?

Password

Human Verification

In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.